#10

“In a landmark opinion, a divided Supreme Court ruled on June 26th that states cannot ban same-sex marriage. The U.S. is now the 21st country to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide. Married same-sex couples will now enjoy the same legal rights and benefits as married heterosexual couples and will be recognized on official documents such as birth and death certificates.”
One day shy of an entire month, same sex marriages were legalized; yet transgender people are still being killed. So is it acceptable for women to date women, and men to date men as long as they stay their birth sex? Does America hate all gays? Or is it just transgenders? On July 21, 2015 India Clarke was the 10th transgender women to be killed in Tampa Bay Florida by blunt force trauma. India’s death was reported by detectives as followed, “We are not going to categorize him as a transgender. We can just tell you that he had women’s clothing on at the time. What his lifestyle was prior to that we don’t know­­—whether he was a cross dresser, we don’t know.”
There are two issues I have a issue with in the India Clarke case. The first is the insensitivity of Tampa Bay police officers when dealing with the trans-community. The second is hatred that is still displayed towards the trans-community when we are shifting to an area of acceptance. Although we are in a era of the system vs. the people; people still follow the lead of police officers. Showing the community transgenders are not accepted by misreporting their sex makes it evident their murders go unnoticed. Do police officers not considered their deaths worthy of investigation? Secondly, if we are shifting towards an era of acceptance, why are trans people the last on the list to be accepted? By not snitching, murder, theft, and abuse are all accepted. However, a group of people are still not accepted; where is the sense in this?

I think I’m going to call this altered genderism. The act of hating a person for changing their gender. Why can’t people choose who they want to be? If a girl is interested in science, she can choose to be a doctor. If a boy is interested in cars he can be a mechanic. So why is it that if a girl spiritually feels like a boy she can’t choose to be a boy, or vice versa? It’s time to wake up people, and realize their are bigger issues that need to be fought; ie. systematic slavery. We are reverting back to being killed for our color, but all we can pay attention to is killing people for their life choices. It’s time to wake up and ban together not fall apart. I would like to say R.I.P to Ms. India Clarke another sister lost to close mindedness before she had a chance to live.